Terms of service.

1. Who these terms cover

"Customer" means the business or organization that signs up for Aptus, along with the people it lets use its account. "Recipients" are the customer's own customers, the people Aptus contacts for the customer. "Order form" means any proposal, order form or statement of work that the customer signs or accepts. If an order form conflicts with these terms, the order form wins, but only for that conflict.

A person who accepts these terms for an organization promises they have authority to bind it.

2. What Aptus does

Aptus provides a hosted service (the "Service") that:

• imports the customer's invoice and account data;
• sends text and email reminders about those invoices, in the customer's name and on the customer's approved schedule;
• gives recipients a pay page where they can pay in full, pay in part or start a payment plan;
• follows up on balances past an age the customer sets ("recovery"), again in the customer's name and on the customer's instructions;
• matches payments to invoices and shows the customer one view of every account.

3. The customer's role, and ours

The customer is the creditor and the sender. The customer:

• owns the debts. Aptus doesn't buy, take assignment of or guarantee any debt;
• approves every message template, the send schedule, the channels, the recovery age and the rules for stopping before any message goes out, and approves any change before it takes effect;
• decides which accounts are contacted, and can pause or stop any account at any time;
• handles every dispute, hardship request, request for verification, and cease-contact request that Aptus passes along to it;
• receives all payments directly.

Aptus is the customer's service provider. We run the Service according to the customer's instructions and settings. We aren't the customer's lawyer and don't give legal advice. Nothing in the Service replaces the customer's own review of the laws that apply to its debts.

4. Customer promises

The customer promises that:

1. The data is accurate and the debts are real. Every balance it uploads is valid, is owed by the named person, and isn't disputed without resolution, discharged in bankruptcy, time-barred or otherwise legally uncollectable. It will tell Aptus right away if that changes.
2. It has consent to contact. Every phone number and email it gives Aptus was provided by the recipient, or collected in a way that lets the customer lawfully send that recipient automated texts and emails about their account. This includes the prior express consent required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and similar state laws. The customer keeps records of that consent and will provide them if Aptus asks.
3. It will follow the law. This covers every law that applies to the customer as a creditor and sender, including consumer-protection, debt-collection, privacy, student-records (FERPA and state student-privacy laws), and anti-spam laws.
4. Its messages are lawful. It won't approve templates that are false, misleading, threatening or harassing, or that misstate the amount or status of a debt.
5. It will tell us about restrictions. It will flag accounts that belong to people in bankruptcy or active military service, people represented by an attorney, or people who have asked not to be contacted, and anything else that limits contact.

5. What Aptus does to keep messages lawful

The Service has these controls built in: STOP and HELP handling on every text, an unsubscribe link in every email, sending hours limited to the recipient's local daytime (8am to 8pm), reminders that stop when a recipient pays, starts a plan or asks for a call, and a log of every message and reply. These controls help the customer comply. They don't shift the customer's legal duties to Aptus.

6. Payments

Recipients pay through Stripe, into the customer's own Stripe account. The customer is the merchant of record and is responsible for refunds, chargebacks and disputes. Stripe's own terms apply to the customer's Stripe account. Aptus never holds, receives or controls recipient payments.

For payment plans, the pay page collects the recipient's electronic authorization for the stated amounts and dates. The customer may cancel or change a plan at any time. Aptus stops future charges when a plan is cancelled.

7. Fees

The customer pays the fees in its order form, which may include:

• Setup: a one-time fee.
• Aptus Reminders: a subscription, billed in advance for each billing period.
• Aptus Recover: a fee equal to the percentage in the order form of each Recovered Amount. A "Recovered Amount" is money paid on an account after it moves into recovery, during the term or within 30 days after the last recovery message, whether it's paid through the pay page or directly to the customer. Money paid on accounts that were only in reminders never counts. If a payment is later refunded or charged back, the fee on it is credited.

Unless the order form says otherwise, invoices are due within 30 days. Fees don't include taxes, and the customer pays any sales or similar taxes except taxes on Aptus's income. Aptus never adds a fee that recipients pay.

8. Pilots

A pilot is a paid, time-limited use of the full Service, and its order form sets the scope, length and price. These terms apply during a pilot. At the end of a pilot the Service stops unless the customer signs an order form for a full term.

9. Customer data

• The customer owns its data. "Customer Data" means everything the customer or its recipients put into the Service: account and invoice data, contact details, messages, replies and payment records.
• How we use it. We use Customer Data only to provide, secure and support the Service for that customer, as described in our Privacy Policy and any data processing addendum. We don't sell it. We don't use it to market to recipients. We don't use it to train third-party AI models.
• Aggregated data. We may use de-identified, aggregated data, which can't identify the customer or any person, to measure and improve the Service.
• Student records. For schools, Aptus acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA (34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)). It is under the school's direct control in how it uses and maintains education records, uses them only for the purposes in these terms, and doesn't re-disclose them except as FERPA allows. The student data addendum governs where it applies.
• Security. We keep reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards, listed in section 8 of our Privacy Policy. We'll tell the customer without undue delay, and within the time the law requires, after we confirm a breach affecting its Customer Data.
• At the end. For 30 days after the Service ends, the customer can export its data. After that, we delete Customer Data within 90 days, except records we're legally required to keep (such as opt-out lists and billing records) and backups that are overwritten on a normal schedule.

10. Acceptable use

The customer won't use the Service to:

• contact anyone about a debt it doesn't own or isn't authorized to collect;
• send marketing, or anything else that isn't about the recipient's account with the customer;
• collect debts that carry illegal rates or fees, or send anything that is harassing, deceptive or unlawful;
• load data it isn't allowed to share, or include full card numbers, Social Security numbers, health records or similar sensitive data that the Service doesn't need;
• try to get around sending limits, opt-outs or security controls, or reverse-engineer or resell the Service.

Aptus may pause sending on any account, or the whole Service, if we reasonably believe it's being used in a way that breaks these terms or the law. When we can, we'll tell the customer first.

11. Confidentiality and intellectual property

Each side keeps the other's non-public information confidential and uses it only for this agreement. Aptus owns the Service, its software and everything we build. The customer owns its data, its name and its brand, and gives Aptus permission to use them only to send messages and run the pay page for the customer. If the customer sends us feedback, we may use it freely.

12. Term, warranties, liability

• Term and ending it. The term is in the order form. If the order form doesn't set one, the Service runs month to month, renews automatically, and either side can cancel with 30 days' written notice. Either side may end this agreement if the other materially breaches it and doesn't fix the breach within 30 days of written notice. The customer pays fees earned up to the end date, including recovery fees on amounts paid before the end date.
• What we promise. We'll provide the Service with reasonable skill and care, and in line with our documentation.
• What we don't promise. Aptus doesn't guarantee that any amount will be collected. Outside the promises in these terms, the Service is provided "as is." We disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we don't promise the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Text and email delivery depends on carriers and providers outside our control.
• Customer indemnity. The customer will defend Aptus against third-party claims, and pay resulting losses, when they arise from the customer's data, its debts, its consent records, its approved messages, or its breach of section 4 or 10.
• Aptus indemnity. Aptus will defend the customer against third-party claims that the Service, as we provide it, infringes their intellectual property, and pay resulting losses.
• Limit. Except for indemnity obligations, breach of confidentiality, and fees owed, neither side is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or lost profits. Each side's total liability is limited to the fees the customer paid Aptus in the 12 months before the claim.

13. Texts, emails and the pay page

Who is contacting you. A business you have an account with uses Aptus to send reminders about your bill. The message comes from that business, and the business is responsible for the account, the amount and any dispute.

• Program: account and payment reminders from the business named in the message.
• Frequency varies with your account. It's usually a few messages a month, and more if a balance is overdue.
• Message and data rates may apply.
• Reply STOP to stop texts from that business at any time. You'll get one message confirming it. Reply HELP for help, or contact the business directly.
• Carriers aren't liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
• We don't share your mobile number or text consent with anyone for marketing. See the Privacy Policy.

Email. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Questions about your bill. Reply to the message or use "Ask for a call" on the pay page. Your question goes to the business. Aptus can't change your balance, waive fees or settle a dispute. Only the business can.

The pay page. Payments are processed by Stripe and go straight to the business. Aptus never sees your full card number. If you start a payment plan, you authorize the business to charge your card for the amounts and on the dates shown. You can ask the business to change or cancel the plan at any time.

You can dispute a bill. Use the pay page or reply to the message. Reminders on that account pause while the business looks into it.

14. This website

You may browse aptuscollect.com and share its pages. Don't copy the design or content to use as your own, scrape it at volume, or try to break it. The site is provided "as is," and figures on it are illustrative unless a source is given.

15. General

• Governing law. Illinois law governs these terms, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in Cook County, Illinois. Part B doesn't limit any right you have under the consumer-protection laws of your own state.
• Changes. We may update these terms. For customers, changes that materially cut their rights take effect 30 days after we notify them, or at renewal. The date at the top always shows the latest version.
• Notices. Aptus: StudentFlow LLC, czapata@studentflow.io. Customers: the address in the order form.
• Other. Neither side can assign this agreement without the other's consent, except as part of a merger or sale of the business. If part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a term isn't a waiver. Neither side is liable for delays caused by events outside its reasonable control. These terms, the order form, and any data processing or student data addendum are the whole agreement.

Contact. czapata@studentflow.io